Coatings used for ink jet recording media have to meet a number of performance requirements. These requirements include dry time, color density, resolution, tack, color fidelity, lightfastness, as well as cost. For pigment based inks, ink layer cracking is also an important performance parameter. There are many materials, both organic and inorganic, that have been proposed for this application. Among them, cellulose derivatives have shown promising performance. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,437 describes a hydroxyethylcellulose coating, U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,891 describes a carboxymethylcellulose coating and a hydroxyethylcellulose coating, U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,465 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,797 describe hydroxypropyl cellulose, U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,954 describes a mixture of carboxymethyl cellulose and a polyethylene oxide, U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,457 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,581 generally mention cellulose ethers and cellulose derivatives. However, not all cellulose derivatives perform well or equally. As a matter of fact, none of the specific cellulose derivatives described in the above-referenced patents give satisfactory performance. The success of a design based on cellulose derivatives depends upon the chemical nature and physical properties of the cellulose derivatives, such as functionality. Furthermore, cellulose derivatives alone seldom offer a design that is suitable for most commercial applications. Other functional components are usually needed to achieve desired results.